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Plainridge staff in fierce fight for slots license

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
01/20/2014 06:49:39 AM EST

Plainridge Racecourse workers brought a racehorse to the Statehouse in November 2005 in support of expanded gaming legislation. Now, a slots casino proposed for the track in Plainville is competing with proposals in Leominster and Raynham for the state's sole slots casino license in Massachusetts. AP File Photo

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Second of two stories examining the communities and proposals competing with Leominster for the sole slots-only casino license in Massachusetts.

By Loren Savini

BU Statehouse Program

December was a big month for Bristol County businesses. Holiday shoppers flocked to the Wrentham outlets for designer deals. Fans made their pilgrimage to Foxboro's Patriot Place to breathe the playoff air.

Nearby Plainridge Racecourse has seen better holidays. Typically, the racing season ends in mid-November, when drivers take a six-week break before returning to training regimens in January. But this year, the staff and horsemen of Plainridge fear they may have seen their last season.

After years of falling financial fortunes, the track is in one last race, running against two other contenders for the state's lone slots-machine casino license.

If it loses, the last harness track in southern New England may be gone in April.

"It's going to be devastating if we don't get the slot machines," says longtime track announcer Larry Calderone, "for me and for everybody."

Calderone, who has worked at Plainridge since the day it opened, says the effort to win the license has involved the track's community of 140 workers along with horse owners and suppliers.

"We've put our heart and soul into making this place a success," he says. "There's no quit in anybody here. We're going to fight to the end and try to make this work.

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Dr. Mike Duggan, a track veterinarian, sees the track as a bygone way of life "that you can't put into dollars and cents."

"In terms of economics, all of these people should be confined to a mental institution," he says. "These people would make more money flipping burgers."

The Plainridge Racecourse opened in 1999, replacing the 50-year-old harness-racing venue at Foxboro Park, now the site of Gillette Stadium. Its 14-year history has been marked by controversy and lawsuits among various investors.

A drive to Plainridge takes you past signs directing traffic to Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place. You have to look carefully for the track entrance, set back a quarter mile from the road. With no cars coming in and out, it's difficult to tell if you're going the right way.

On a rainy Friday early in December, the facility looks particularly lonely. The infield of the 5/8-mile track appears muddy and neglected. A horseman trotted his horse slowly around the track riddled with dark-brown puddles.

The parking lot, able to accommodate several hundred vehicles, is speckled with about 50 cars. A parking garage, built in 2012 to house an additional 1,080 automobiles, sits empty.

The $20.5 million garage was a gamble -- a flag put up by Plainridge and Penn National, the gaming corporation, to try to convince the Massachusetts Gaming Commission the track is the best candidate for the slot machine parlor license.

Competition for the license is fierce. The state's 2011, casino law authorizes just one slots-machine parlor, pitting Plainridge against the former Raynham Park dog track and The Cordish Cos.'s bid to build a site in Leominster.

Boosters argue slot machines would save Plainridge, pointing to the success nine Northeast tracks have had with expanded gaming. The most lucrative is Yonkers Raceway, which saw a purse revenue of $59,983,305 in 2012. Maine's Scarborough Downs trails the list at $4,787,803 -- still double Plainridge's $2,400,585 purse, the amount of betting proceeds that is distributed among horse owners, trainers, and drivers.

State data shows Plainridge's purses have continued to fall. Last summer, live betting at Plainridge dropped to $1.5 million compared to $2.4 million in 2007. Simulcast betting dropped from $57.9 million to $46.1 million.

Plainridge's first bid for the slot machine license in early 2013 was disqualified after state investigators discovered track President Gary T. Piontkowski had made cash withdrawals from the track's funds for his own use.

Penn National Gaming, which had made two previous bids for gambling licenses in Massachusetts, stepped in, securing an option to purchase the racecourse if it wins the slots license.

Penn National CEO Tim Wilmott outlined the company's $225 million plan to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in December, describing changes that would incorporate 500 slot machines in its current 50,000-square-foot facility and construction of another 56,000-square-foot building for 1,250 more machines.

Other renovations would include a new 100-seat lounge to support local bands and comedians. Football legend Doug Flutie would open a sports bar displaying his prized Heisman trophy.

Penn National would open the permanent facility by April 2015.

Given the head start that we've had on the permitting process, it means that the day that the license is issued, we can have shovels in the dirt the next day," Jay Snowden, a senior vice president, told the commission on Dec. 4.

Although the casino bid passed a local referendum in September, opposition remains -- a fact made clear at a community forum held by the state gaming commission in Wrentham back in October. At the meeting, Bob Cutler, acting town manager for nearby Foxboro, outlined the trinity of issues concerning residents: traffic, water supplies and social impacts.

"We've got some concerns about any social service needs that result from problem gambling, alcoholism, bankruptcies -- things like that," he said.

The gaming commissioners also heard from Foxboro resident and Erin Earnst, of the Woodside Park Neighborhood Association, who wielded an iPad with a map of the proposed park.

"Really look at the three different proposals that you have in front of you and take into account the population density (and) the ages of the populations in these areas," said Earnst, who echoed others' fears about the negative effect she believed the casino would have on families.

Such concerns have been heightened by an impact report released in May by the Chicago-based Civic Economics, which warned of decreased property values and increased traffic.

"It is expected that more than 75 percent of visitors to Plainridge Racecourse will come from beyond Norfolk County, thus placing a large proportion of those visitors on Interstates 95 and 495," the report said.

Balanced against those negatives are predictions of increased jobs, salaries and revenue for the town. A report released by Plainview said the town could expect some $8.6 million in new revenues between 2015 and 2019 from property tax, meals tax, wagering tax and permit fees.

Jack Lank, president of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce that represents surrounding communities, estimates the casino would bring 500 jobs to the area.

"Plus the ripple effect that it will have with all of our small businesses in the area," he added. "When they come here for entertainment, they come here for gambling . . . they need to buy coffee, they need to buy lunch. They need to buy dinner. They need to buy milk and bread when they go home. That means that they are going to stop at all of my small businesses that surround this area."

Such data provides ammunition for those who fear what would happen to the area if the track closes.

"We have so many people engaged in the economy of racing, whether it's the horse breeders, the hay farms, the vets, the tack shops," state Rep. Betty Poirier, R-North Attleboro, said at the Wrentham meeting. "To lose that racetrack would be a tremendous hit to the economy in our area and would put hundreds of people out of work."

Rep. Steve Howitt, R-Seekonk, sees a cascading effect if Plainridge closes, listing other businesses that would suffer, from farmers who supply hay and feed for the horses to suppliers of wood chips and the clay for the stables.

"It just goes on and on and on with the number of businesses, ancillary businesses that are affected by having horses," he said.

Larry Tilton, a North Attleboro Morgan horse breeder, says businesses not dependent on the track could also suffer.

"We share the same feed suppliers, the horseshoe people, the vets. So, it's very important for me to maintain the facilities and the suppliers to our breed," he said.

Tilton believes Plainridge is the perfect match for the slots license. "This area is known as the golden triangle, where 495, 95, 295 and 146 intersect. It's location, location and location... And that's just what Plainridge is," he said.

But it is hard for the casual visitor to imagine a betting palace at the dowdy and near-deserted Plainridge site. At 3 p.m., a handful of men sit at the bar and stare intently at the screens showing races from around the country.

Every once and a while one of them jumps up to curse a losing steed.

Outside, a 30-foot mound of dirt sits next to the main building, muddy from the rain. Either the permanent slot facility will rise from the mound or, as Domenic Longobardi, director of community relations and marketing puts it -- nothing will remain.

If we don't get it (the license), we won't be a race track. The back-up plan is sell for real estate," he says.

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